Tuesday, March 24, 2009

What objectives should a church have in using social technologies?

Charlene Li, author of Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies, gives five primary objectives that successful companies have pursued in using social technologies:

1) listening to customers;

2) talking and spreading a company’s message;

3) energizing their customers;

4) helping customers support one another; and

5) embracing customers by inviting them into the company’s design process.


Social technologies are technologies like Blogging, Facebook, Twitter, the Missional Outreach Network - basically, interactive technologies that can spread through social networks.

As churches learn to use social technologies, which of these five objectives do you think is most important for them to concentrate on? And who are their "customers"--members or non-Christians?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Spreading the message should be #1, while remembering that the church is not a company and cannot be run like one. "customers", whether members or non-Christians, should not be able to alter the message OR the church's design. Both were set in place by the "founder" and cannot be changed without a change in ownership.

James Nored said...

It is true that the church is not a company--God forbid! Technology is a communication medium and a part of our culture. We should learn from whoever we can about how to use these mediums.

The message should not be distorted; however, the gospel is multi-faceted, and different aspects of it will hit people differently.